'I run my takeaway business from school kitchens'

An entrepreneur who hires school kitchens to prepare takeaways from has said he will expand the business after the arrangement proved a success.

David Nicholson operates seven different restaurant brands from Carr Junior School in Acomb, York, as part of his School Kitchen venture.

He takes over the catering facilities outside of school hours and has plans to use a second school in the city as well as locations in Harrogate, Leeds and Sheffield.

The chef said it took a long time to persuade the school "to be the first" to allow its building to be used, but the idea has now taken off in London as well.

Mr Nicholson said he wanted to "serve good food" while helping schools financially by renting their kitchens.

Staff are paid a living wage, with no-one on zero-hours contracts and all deliveries are done themselves, Mr Nicholson said.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said School Kitchen also had an educational arm, teaching children more about cooking and food. Any profits go towards funding breakfast clubs.

"We’ve done cookery demonstrations for the kids and provided food for free breakfasts," he said.

Mr Nicholson had the idea before the pandemic because he had noticed more and more "ghost" or "dark kitchens".

“There was a growing number of these kitchens where food is prepared out of places like shipping containers then delivered to customers,” he said.

“I wanted to do something like that, but in a way that would have a positive impact on the community, so I came up with the idea of School Kitchen.”

Customers can order Spanish, Italian, Sri Lankan, Thai and Mexican dishes and Mr Nicholson said menus had been designed with the help of celebrity chefs Matt Tebbutt and Nadia Hussain.

Orders come in via the School Kitchen or Deliveroo websites.

"It took a long time to find [a school] that was willing to be the first," he said.

"There were worries about safeguarding and cross-contamination of food for people with allergies, and we also had to get planning permission."

Now the business is looking to set up cookery programmes and an apprenticeship scheme, he added.

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